UN Condemns Israel For Making Gazans So Poor That They Only Spend Half A Billion Dollars On Beer And Cigarettes In A Week (Plus: Mexico Is An Unacceptable Humanitarian Crisis!)
We're as shocked as anybody:
New UN special envoy Robert Serry, in a maiden report highly critical of Israel to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, called for a "different and more positive strategy for Gaza" on Tuesday... Calling the situation in Gaza "unacceptable and also unsustainable in humanitarian, human rights, security and political terms," the UN diplomat from the Netherlands said "a different and more positive strategy for Gaza is required." "Despite statements of intent, Hamas has not acted with sufficient determination to bring about an end to rocket attacks by militant groups," Serry said. "Hamas itself also carries out periodic rocket firing and regular mortar fire, to say nothing of the recent suicide bombing."
And by "insufficient determination," maybe she meant how a day later Hamas would fire dozens and dozens of rockets at Israel and murder a father of four. Except she didn't. Or by "unacceptable and also unsustainable" humanitarian situation, maybe she meant how Hamas has deliberately engineered a humanitarian crisis for the international media and their anti-Israel friends in international organizations. Except she didn't.
But those are different posts. This post is about the whole "Palestinians are so poor and downtrodden" thing is - like most of the other anti-Israel canards that get floated around as conventional wisdom - kind of a lie. About a year ago we wrote a post that pointed out that (a) the Palestinians get incredible amounts of per capita aid and (b) they have a habit of spending it on bombs instead of food. Turns out, they not only have enough money for both - they also have more than their fair share of disposable income:
Egyptian media report that the "poverty-stricken Palestinians" [who broke through the Gaza fence] will have spent close to half a billion dollars at the end of the week, virtually emptying the country of televisions, cigarettes, mobile phones and Heineken.
And that's because the Palestinians actually don't have it that bad:
Palestinians are about in the mid-average range for third-world countries, and rank almost the same as Mexico... Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) 2004 Palestinians have a better time than: Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia Probability of not surviving past age 40(%) 2004 Palestinians have a better time than: Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia... Children underweight for age (% ages 0-5) 2004 Palestinians have a better time than: Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia
Sandmonkey has more, and the link he provides has even more than that. The Palestinians - in an "unacceptable and also unsustainable" humanitarian situation - have it better than citizens of 71 countries. That's according to the United Nations, which has a vested interest in maximizing the Palestinian Deprivation Myth. Infant mortality statistics make the exact same argument.
In a neat little arrangement, however, the UN has the prerogative to ignore all that and keep unblinkingly condemning Israel.
References:
* New UN envoy critical of Israel [JPost]
* Rice: We Really Need To Focus On How The Innocent People In Gaza Are Being Victimized By The Government They Elected [MR]
* Hamas Confiscates Aid Trucks, Promises To Deliver Them Some Time Later [MR]
* The Palestinian Deprivation Myth - Maybe If They Spent More Of Their Massive Aid Packages On Medicine and Less On Suicide Bombings... [MR]
* Stupid [Fark]
* For some Perspective [Rantings Of A Sandmonkey]
* How Poor are those Palestenians? [Musings, Rants and much more]
Previously:
* UN Sec-Gen Is Either Lying Or Very, Very Stupid
* UN High Commissioner Endorses Human Rights Charter: "Zionism Is Racism", Must Be "Eliminated"
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security I - UN Admits Hezbollah Is Rearming
